The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1887-05-29
VOTARESSES OF MAMM0N
VICIOUS CRAVING FOR CHANGE
AND VARIETY IN DRESS.

less Multiplication Dangerous Ten
denotes Toward Excess and Extrava-
gance- The History of a Black Silk
Dress The Loss of Caste in White
Cotton Toilets Recent Dispensations
in White Dresses The Esthetic
Sleeve Clever Girls and Charming
Costumes
NEW YORK, May 2S.-Rhoda Broughton
tells IN one of her novels of a curate's wife
whose white silk wedding dress, first dyed
brown and then black, was her best dinner
party dress for fifteen years Doubtless the
wearing of one gown must have grown mo-
notonous But after all it had its compen-
sating side. There was no anxiety with re-
gard to style and no doubt as to choice The
one dress had mission to fulfill, and full
filed it
There are few women now but have some
such dress and it is nearly always a black
one As the curate's wife said: "a black
silk dress is always smart enough, and not
too smart" and black silk, covered with
lace, trimmed with jet or combined with
velvet, has become the piece-de-reStStdnce
of almost all wardrobes But it is rarely,
with us, the one dress; it is the one in
twenty.
The tendency of dreSses-of everything in
these days-is to senseless multiplication.
Materials are bought because they are
pretty; like photograph frames, bits of
china, fancy baskets, boxes and covers, I'M
til closets groan and rooms are so burdened
with inanimate objects that every bit of
free air and vital influence is excluded from
them. This growing and eternally fed de-
sire, this tendency toward accumulation de-
rnands constantly increasing expenditure
and feAa.fS thu thirst in.
Money is considered the greatest good
Money is the god that all worship The
names.of two or three great money kings
have become a stock-in-trade with news
paper paragrsphists; who know that what
ever is said about them-true or false-will
be eagerly swallowed by the public.
Women, conscientious women, need to
bold a strong check upon themselves, that
they may not be led away by the vulgar,
popular current. Above all, it is time for
them TO consider their clothing from some
other point of view than that of fashion g"
Perhaps there is no other one term in the
world that is more misleading or uncertain
to-day than this same one of fashion "
Fashion is the new thing, the happy thought,
the revival of an old idea, or the application
of an existing object to fresh uses. But
there is never more than one of it when it is
turned out in dozens it ceases to be fashion
WHITE TOILETS
The embroidered, white, cotton dresses
are case in point. When they were rare
and costly ladies wore them, and they were
considered and described as 'lovely." Now
they are turned out by the hundreds, sold
as low as 80 so each--for an entire robe
and discovered to be so crude, inaytistic and
chalky that no lady of taste will wear one.
We have discovered that a true '.white'
dress is not dead white-like a wall space
but a collection of soft tints which produce
onln. .snf4a Al.
lint upon tint, deepening into shades of
brown or green or gray, requires an even
finer artistic sense for their proper group
ing and arrangement than the suitable con
trasting of colors.
A white dress, made recently began with
cloud of grayish tulle laid over soft, pale,
gray silk. Over this first layer of tulle was
draped a lighter shade, and above this,
pearly white-frosted- held in place by
three sash ends of irregular lengths in the
three shades of the tulle. These were gath
cred upon the ends and fastened down with
rosettes of narrow ribbon, each rosette con-
tanning the shades of the tulle The bodice
was OF the ''white' shade of silk; low, round
and edged with small pearl beads. The
sleeves were almost MI This design is
charming with pale yellow as the founda-
ton; or in a combination of brown and
cream
Cream wool and cream surah enter
dilflOSb eludlly luUO bne sum-
mer costumes, but not in combination with
each other White wool dresses have taken
the place of white cotton, and are really
more economical for those who have to nav
a hotel laundress; for a white washing
dress is quickly soiled and tells its own story
after it has been washed and starched and
ironed few times: while a creepy wool
albatross cloth or nuns veiling-will last
one or two seasons with care, and can then be
sent to a cleaner or made over for child
Embroidery i'll colors and a delicate
striped pattern upon the material forms the
newest and prettiest ornamentation upon
these pale woods, and the suggestive con-
trastr-not Mt all bold or conspicuous-is
needed to give them character. Rosettes or
groups of loops, in narrow ribbon the colors
of the embroidery, are often used upon one
shoulder or the draped side of the bodice, OF
TO point the draperies Of the skirt.
It is upon the thin woods that embroidery
is mostly expended. The heavier materials,
such as dress hannels, vicuna cloths, chud-
dab cloths. albatross and canvas cloths, re-
quire more striking finish. Some of these
are trimmed with velvet stripe, others are
richly braided with gold and still others con.
trasts with peacock blue or poppy red vel
vet.
A recent cream wool suit made for New
port had plated edging of cream surah
plated vest of the same, buttoned with
small gold buttons and poppy red velvet
Jacket cut straight and open, with sleeve.
nearly to the wrist and sailor straw hal
trimmed with red velvet and creamy tiIft.
of feathers.
THE EsTHETIc SLEEVE
Cream slIIah and gold surah-for which
the demand has been such as TO threaten ex
tinction from the market-are usec
mainly for narrow plaitings and the
immense puflings, which have broker
out like smallpox and threaten an
epidemic. 1.-The mills of the gods grind
slowly" but if the English esthetes and
the American admirers wanted revenge foI
the ridicule and contempt heaped upon theil
slashed sleeves, their leg-of-mutton sleeves
their Greek sleeves, their full medieval
sleeves and their fourteenth century sleeves
they can take it now, for since Paris has
swallowed them New York and all America
that takes it's cue from France, must
whether ii viii or no. and indeed it seems to
have done so without making a WY face
The difference with us is, that while in Lon
don and Paris such conspicuous styles arc
limited TO a small number and to social occa.
sions, here they become universal, and, like
The Mother Hubbard" wrapper, are put
upon the street.
The great lack of over dressing seems &c
be sense OF fitness: but il may be only
that larger number here have the power